Tens of thousands of residents are without telephone service and are likely to remain that way until JCP&L restores power. Internet and cable TV service is also linked to the availability of electric power in many areas.

That’s the word today, Oct. 31, from spokesmen for CenturyLink, Verizon and Comcast. More than 32,000 customers in Hunterdon County remain without electric power today, two days after a storm dumped more than five inches of snow. Because many trees still have leaves on them, the heavy, wet snow took down a large number of trees and limbs.

At CenturyLink in Clinton, Jim Robinson said that a generator and batteries have allowed the central host office to keep service going for a number of residents and businesses, including the county communications center. “If we’re out, 9-1-1 is out,” as well as local emergency land lines, said Robinson.

He said that JCP&L crews were working at the central office to restore power there, which is expected to happen late this afternoon. CenturyLink provides land-line telephone service and offers Internet and DirectTV in most of Hunterdon, except for a wide swath of the southern end of the county.

Robinson said that about 25,000 were without local telephone service, almost all of them because of power outages. “Our system runs off their electricity,” he said. “In most instances our wires aren’t damaged. We have had some phone lines down, but not necessarily damaged.”

From the central office in Clinton, CenturyLink branches out to 13 main offices and then 88 “remotes.” Robinson said that 21 remotes were out of service today. He said his company has installed generators to restore service in some areas and will move those generators when electric power is back. Some areas were still blocked by downed trees, limbs and wires today and weren’t accessible to CenturyLink crews, he added.

“When the power is restored, telephone service should be automatically restored,” said Robinson. “We need to assume that power lines are live so the power company must attend to a downed wire issue before the other utilities can” tackle any problems.

Verizon has telephone land lines and, to a lesser extent, cable and Internet services in southern Hunterdon. Spokesman Lee Gierczynski said he didn’t have any outage numbers but said there has been a spike in outage reports. He also said, “We wait until the power companies go in before we can start our restoration work,” based upon reports of service outages from customers.

During an electrical outage, landline customers with copper-wire service may still have service on corded telephones. Residents with Fios — fiber-based — service are dependent upon electricity, however Verizon installs a back-up battery that will keep corded phones running 6-8 hours after the power goes out, said Gierczynski. “It doesn’t help with an extended outage.”

Comcast offers cable TV, Internet and telephone in 20 of Hunterdon’s 26 municipalities. Spokesman Jeff Alexander also said it customers’ outages were largely tied to JCP&L’s power problem. “Our crews have worked nonstop since the storm hit and have made tremendous progress,” said Alexander. In some cases, he said that access is an issue and Comcast crews are waiting for debris and downed lines to be cleared.

“We are getting customers back on line every hour,” he said.

Customers who have Internet service may sign up to receive emergency bulletins from the county Department of Public Safety Division of Emergency Management. Messages are sent related to severe weather, missing persons, major traffic problems and other safety and community event information. Residents can limit the information received and decide to get it via email or text message.